It turns out that a northeast Ohioan, U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, was tied for first place in receipts from the nation's leading gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, in the November election cycle...... Renacci, a Republican from Wadsworth, got $9,900 from the NRA Political Victory Fund for his successful reelection effort.......The NRA gave $1,012,687. Eighty-seven percent went to Republicans.

"....As we consider what actions can be taken to prevent incidents like this in the future, it is important to keep in mind that these murders were carried out by a mad man, not by our Founding Fathers or our Constitution. The common thread between this incident and others like it before is the growing mental health epidemic that is plaguing our country. How we as a nation identify and treat mental health conditions must be the top priority as we take action to address this growing threat."

"In regards to our constitutional rights, when acts of violence are carried out in the name of religion, as we witnessed on 9/11, we did not move to erase our First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion. The same standard applies to the Second Amendment, and any restrictions on our Second Amendment rights must be narrowly tailored and meet the strictest standard of scrutiny our judiciary can apply."

Here, Renacci compares gun regulatory efforts in the wake of Newtown to the absence of efforts after 9-11 to "erase" the "free exercise of religion." Apples and oranges. The 9-11 hijackers were not U.S. citizens and therefore, their religious beliefs had nothing to do with our first amendment rights. The more appropriate comparison would have been that the U.S. did not ban or even regulate boxcutters after 9-11.

But we put plain clothes U.S. Marshals carrying guns on airplanes after 9-11. We locked down the door to the cockpit in all airplanes. We now take our shoes, belts, etc off before we board airplanes. We did a lot after 9-11.

No, we didn't restrict Americans' rights to the free exercise of religion after 9-11....but honestly Mr. Renacci....why would we?

What else did we do after 9-11? Our law enforcement began arbitrarily targeting and profiling Muslims in America for investigation. The FBI now regularly infiltrates Muslim groups, mosques, etc baiting young, troubled Muslim men into going along with terrorist plots that the FBI instills into their heads. The FBI supplies these alleged terrorists with the necessary bombing equipment...and at times...encourages and incentivizes the target to carry out the plot.

After 9-11, the Congress passed the Patriot Act, which at the time, allowed for the snooping, without probable cause or warrants, into the local library book-reading lists of targeted U.S. citizens. The FBI began the practice of issuing "letters of interest" instead of obtaining judicial warrants before tapping a citizen's phone or snooping into a person's stuff.

Today, after 9-11, all electronic communications are vacuumed up and run through computers, the government snoops looking for a needle in the middle of a huge digital haystack....the data stored by our federal government. All without any regard to the limitations of the 4th amendment. Tele-communications corporations work hand in hand with the federal snoops and have been granted universal amnesty to continue openly violating every citizen's 4th amendment right.

The point being...while it's true that America didn't restrict religious liberty after 9-11....again, why would we?.....we did restrict a lot of things. We moved heaven and earth....and the Constitution...out of the way to prevent "another 9-11." We even invaded a sovereign country without that country ever posing a threat to our nation after 9-11....killing a minimum of 200,000 Iraqi citizens in the process. We endorsed and embraced torture. That's what we did Mr. Renacci.

But no, Mr. Renacci...."the same standard" does not apply after Sandy Hook Elementary.

As I have written previously, our 2nd amendment rights are not immune from government regulations. While guns, as such, cannot be constitutionally banned.....they can be strictly regulated. And they should be. The staunchest and most defiant of all the ultra-conservative Supremes...Antonin Scalia...agrees that the 2nd amendment is subject to government regulations.

The "common thread", as Renacci put it, in many of these mass gun murders.....is semi-automatic guns and 30+ bullet magazines. That's the "common thread." Yes, the shooters have been mostly young, white males....with aberrational behavior problems, and yes, how we deal with mental health issues should be studied.....but the "common thread" in these stories is the lethality, and availability, of the guns used.

I voted against Jim Renacci, and am very sorry to have him representing my district. His comments about the 2nd amendment and his off-the-wall, "we didn't ban religion after 9-11" comment will undoubtedly be the first of many Tea Party-ish-type comments to come.